SALT LAKE CITY — Monday marked 22 years since the tragedy of 9/11.
Americans across the world vow to never forget the terror that hit home and the way it still affects them today.
Unified Fire Authority Operations Chief Wade Russell will never forget when he got the call that his help was needed in New York City.
“The first time we could see exactly 'The Pile' or Ground Zero, you could've dropped a pin on the bus. Everybody understood the magnitude of what had happened and what we were doing there. It was a pretty stoic moment,” he said.
Russell was one of the 62 people that made up Utah Task Force One, a group of firefighters who flew to help with response efforts.
“Just the sights of it, the smells of it were very specific to what we were doing there,” he said.
Russell spent 17 days at Ground Zero with responders, including his father, also a firefighter.
“We would just search, looking for people that could have had the potential to survive and looking for anything we could find,” he said.
“I just can’t explain that day. It was horrible. I just had such a gut-wrenching feeling,” said retired U.S. Army Sgt. Josh Hansen.
Hansen remembers seeing the attack on the news and deciding to join the U.S. Army at age 30.
“I didn’t know when I went into the military at that time that it would change my life forever,” he said.
He served two terms in Iraq before he was injured. Now, he’s the founder of Continue Mission, an organization that supports veterans and their families.
“If I ever had to do it again, I would, because I was that affected and I felt my country needed me at that time,” Hansen said.
Both Hansen and Russell were forever affected by 9/11 and the events that unfolded afterward.
Russell thinks back to one moment often.
“In the middle of the fire engine, there was a pair of boots from a firefighter who had obviously responded. Those boots, he had taken those boots off and then put his turnout boots on,” he said. “It was a really sobering moment to see that person had put his boots there, had taken the call and responded, and obviously had never come back for those boots.”
